Presented by Loblaw Companies Limited, the Shoreline Cleanup is a conservation initiative of the Vancouver Aquarium and WWF, and the largest direct-action environmental project in Canada.

To celebrate Canada’s contribution to the annual International Coastal Cleanup, a public event will be held at Iona Beach Regional Park in Richmond on Saturday, September 20. This cleanup will be one of many events held across the country in various communities to help keep Canada’s lakes, rivers, streams and oceans clean and healthy.

Every piece of trash volunteers find will be tracked and included in an annual index of global marine debris to be released in 2015.

Last year, nearly 650,000 people from around the world picked up more than 5.4 million kilograms of trash along 20,921 kilometres of coastline. In Canada alone, 58,500 people signed up to clean 3,035 kilometres of shorelines removing more than 99,000 kilogram of litter.

To date, nearly 35,000 Canadians have already registered to clean over 1,114 locations across Canada this fall. But the need for more site coordinators and volunteers to register is still great. This year’s Shoreline Cleanup runs the entire month of September and October.